persuasion
noun
Simple meaning
Communication intended to induce belief or action.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
perswayzhuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɚsˈweɪʒən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The act of persuading (or attempting to persuade); communication intended to induce belief or action
The act of persuading, or trying to do so; the addressing of arguments to someone with the intention of changing their mind or convincing them of a certain point of view, course of action etc.
An argument or other statement intended to influence one's opinions or beliefs; a way of persuading someone.
A strongly held conviction, opinion or belief.
A specified religious adherence, a creed; any school of thought or ideology.
by extensionoften humorous
Another personal, animal or inanimate trait that is not (very) liable to be changed by persuasion, such as sex, gender, ethnicity, origin, profession or nature.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of persuading (or attempting to persuade); communication intended to induce belief or action
Used this way, persuasion is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- persuasiveadjective
- rhetoricnoun
- attitudenoun
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.